“This Lullaby” by Sarah Dessen - Quodid

You know, when it works, love is pretty amazing. It's not overrated. There's a reason for all those songs.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

love songs overrated

The only thing I can't stand more than seeing something done wrong is seeing it done slowly.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

Being too scared to even try it—that's just a waste. I can say I made a lot of mistakes, but I don't regret things. Because at least I didn't spend a life standing outside, wondering what living would be like.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

If he wanted to see her, he'd find her. If he wanted to get back together, she should make him work for it.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

Relationships always started with that heady, swoonish period, where the other person is like some new invention that suddenly solves all life's worst problems, like losing socks in the dryer or toasting bagels without burning the edges. At this phase, which usually lasts about six weeks max, the other person is perfect. But at six weeks and two days, the cracks begin to show; not real structural damage yet, but little things that niggle and nag. Like the way they always assume you'll pay for your own movie, just because you did once, or how they use the dashboard of their car as an imaginary keyboard at long stoplights. Once, you might have thought this was cute, or endearing. Now, it annoys you, but not enough to change anything. Come week eight, though, the strain is starting to show. This person is, in fact, human, and here's where most relationships splinter and die. Because either you can stick around and deal with these problems, or ease out gracefully, knowing that at some point in the not-too-distant future, there will emerge another perfect person, who will fix everything, at least for six weeks.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

love relationships perfection problems

Yes, it sucked getting dumped. But wasn't it better to just be brutally honest? To admit that your feeling for someone is never going to be powerful enough to justify taking up any more of their time?

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

The love we have for each other is bigger than these small differences. And that's the key. It's like a big pie chart, and the love in a relationship has to be the biggest piece. Love can make up for a lot.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

It had been about a month since he had dumped her, and she'd moved though her weepy stage to just kind of sad all the time, with occasional moments when I actually heard her laugh out loud, then stop, as if she'd forgotten she wasn't supposed to be happy.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

Never give in to a guy who really pursues you, since they'll just lose interest the moment the chase ends.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

This is what daughters did. They left, and came home later with lives of their own.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

It finally felt like summer. Heavy heat, totally humid, and everything just smelled kind of smoky and thick, as if close to boiling.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

You were different around him. There was something new about you that I'd never seen before. Maybe that was love.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

He's just not a keeper. He's not worth working my schedule around if we're only going to break up in a few weeks anyway.

—Sarah Dessen in This Lullaby

About Sarah Dessen

Picture of Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen (born June 6, 1970) is an American novelist known for her contributions to young adult fiction. Her first book, That Summer, was published in 1996, and has since published more than a dozen other novels and novellas. In 2017, Dessen won the Margaret Edwards Award for some of her work, and two of her books were adapted into the 2003 film How to Deal.

[from Wikipedia]

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